


Disappearing within the Smoke

by Metakit



Category: Puyo Puyo
Genre: False Accusations, Friendship, Gen, Pain, Recovery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-10
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-01-31 11:39:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12681138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Metakit/pseuds/Metakit
Summary: After the strange disappearance of a building in Suzuran, Ringo starts to investigate who could be the culprit behind it.





	1. A hole where there shouldn't be.

In the snowy alleys of the Suzuran mall, a happy goo fellow made his way through, floating about half a feet off the ground. He could see a familiar face closeby and immediately rushed to greet this person, practically flinging himself to meet up with them.

"Oh, heya Ringo! Long time no see, huh?"

She turned around upon hearing her name, a frown occupying her face. A frown that was soon accompanied by furrowed eyebrows, crossed arms and a rough, heavy step forward. Uh oh. She didn't seem to share his enthusiasm.

"You! You're behind this again, aren't you Ecolo?"

"Huh?"

Ecolo had no idea what she was referring to in particular. Had he approached her too quickly and made her upset? Oh no! He didn't mean to make her upset...! 

"Don't play coy! When something terrible happens, you're usually the culprit."

"But Ringo, I-"

"I don't want your lies, Ecolo!"

"I didn't do it, I swear!"

"There's no reason for me to believe you didn't do it! Forget it, there's no time to play games here!"

Sheesh. She sure was angry today, wasn't she? Unfortunately, Ecolo couldn't get another word in before Ringo promptly walked away, humming a little tune. For once, he really hadn't done anything wrong. Unless one could consider taking a walk in the forest to be a bad thing...

"Ah... She left."

What had she even been going on about? His encounter with the girl had only made him grow more confused, not to mention, partially ruining his mood. He felt... kinda bad, actually. Part of him wanted to chase after her for answers, while another thought it was better to just leave her be. After all, she wasn't soon to forgive him for, whatever he had supposedly done.

Being always full of terrible ideas and picker of awful choices, Ecolo decided to go with the former. He followed her from a distance, curious about what had made her so upset. Where was she headed to? A few minutes later, he could see Ringo seemingly searching for something, picking up the pace when she entered the forest.

Staying a few meters behind, Ecolo carefully watched as Ringo made her way deeper into the dense forest. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for him to lose sight of her. It was a rather mountainous area, with lots of trees and rocks. Phooey. That wasn't fun! Wasn't she going to get lost?

Wait...! That meant he was lost, too! Ecolo somewhat regretted following her here, having no idea where he was.

Then again, if everything turned to worse, he could just head to another dimension now, couldn't he?

With a shrug, Ecolo tried to look for Ringo some more. To no avail, he decided to sit down in the snow, grabbing some around him and shaping it into a snowball, which he proceeded to smash between his hands. Even that, didn't seem to bring up his mood from earlier. This had been a waste of time, all in all. Ringo was still angry at him for no reason. He didn't even know where she was! He didn't know what bothered her...! Ah, was he bad at reading people...

...and Ringo had been pretty bad at realizing that someone was following her all this time. Somehow, she had felt a strange power emanating from the depths of the forest and decided to investigate. Earlier today, an entire building had disappeared at the mall. Not destroyed, not moved. It was simply...gone. She had suspected Ecolo at first, but his reaction still had her doubt, despite the way she had acted towards him earlier. Who else could do something at such a grand scale?

Taking a few steps forward, Ringo let herself drop onto the surface of the lake. At this time of the year, it was frozen solid, thick enough for people to safely walk over it. It was here that she felt the power lead her to, where it was the strongest. Ringo felt a little uncomfortable standing there, the sheer force of that energy was a bit overwhelming. A large, shadowy figure seemed to materialize out of nowhere and it was at least three times her size!

"Eek! This doesn't make any sense?! T-There's no fire, or..."

"Hello."

"IT SPOKE!"

Another illogical being?! Ringo really hated those, since she could never understand how they quite worked.

"Come with me..."

They approached her strongly, a wispy, smoky hand reaching out for her. Out of fear, Ringo took a few steps back, tripping backwards and falling on her butt. No way! No! No No! They didn't seem to want to fight at Puyo and only kept creeping closer. The worst part is that she couldn't even call for help! Ah, how foolish she had been to go all alone... Maybe if she hadn't shooed Ecolo off, but even so...

Ecolo, on his end, was getting extremely bored. Not wishing to look any longer, he flopped face first into the snow. Maybe he should just head somewhere else...

...when suddenly, he heard a shrill scream. That voice, it was awfully familiar! Could it be...

Heading towards the source of the sound, Ecolo slid down a snow bank, towards what seemed to be frozen lake. On the its presumably thick ice, his eyes spotted Ringo, from whom he assumed the scream had come from.

She was sitting down, her hands on the sides of her body, eyes widening as she tried to scoot backwards, as if attempting to get away from something or someone.

But what was it?

And then he saw. Another familiar figure, but one that he wished wasn't here right now.

It was a being known as Smoke, a huge wispy fellow whom appearance was literally akin to his name. He seemed enthralled in Ringo, to the displeasure of Ecolo. Though, the goo boy, in his worry, carelessly jumped to close the gap between Ringo and Smoke. Another decision that would soon prove to be a poor choice.

"Ecolo? W-why are you here?"

"..."

Smoke recognized Ecolo, huffing with strength as his eyes shone up, his "neck" coiling upwards. 

"Ah, if it isn't Ecolo. Care to explain why you're getting in my way?"

"Don't hurt her! R-Ringo is good!"

"Move."

"No way! What do you even want with her?!"

"It doesn't concern you. I'm giving you one more chance to remove yourself from the situation."

"No!"

"Suit yourself."

Shlarp. A long, shadowy claw pierced Ecolo's shining core, a light blue liquid splurting and dripping out before the sharp claw was brutally removed. The goo boy fell to the ground, a rolling groan of pain escaping from his mouth, as he weakly grasped his chest.

Without a word, Smoke had vanished moments after, not being able to keep his dimensional anchor any longer.

"Ecolo! Ecolo?"

No answer. He was still harshly 'bleeding' through his core and mouth. A few tears trickled down his face, as he slowly lost consciousness. On her end, Ringo didn't know what to do. Should she take him to the hospital? No... he wasn't human, after all. Plus, he'd get bothered a lot. He was pretty unusual, all things considered. It seemed that the least she could do for now, was to bring him home so he could rest. Was he going to be okay? Now that she knew he wasn't behind the recent events, she couldn't help but worry and regret the words she had told him earlier.

Once home, Ringo covered his chest in bandages, hoping to at least have his bleeding slow down. Once he was awake, she could ask him for clarifications. Like how he know about the shadowy figure or the whole deal about that disappearing building...

Hopefully, he wouldn't be lying his way out of this.


	2. There shouldn't be more problems.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ringo suggests some activities for a recovering Ecolo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof! This was in my drafts for quite a while. This chapter is a breath of fresh air for what's to come! Enjoy!

Some hours had passed, with Ecolo peacefully sleeping on Ringo's bed, underneath a soft blanket. While he had been resting, she had been going through some of her homeworks, albeit feeling a bit distracted. Sometimes, Ringo took quick glances at him, to see if he had woken up or if he was still moving. He seemed to be breathing, at least, which alleviated some of her worries. Putting down her pencil, Ringo headed out of her room to help her parents with calculating the stocks of a recent shipment of apples.

Moments later, Ringo returned, sitting down next to Ecolo on the bed.

Awake. Mumble. Ecolo opened his eyes, slowly turning his head to face Ringo.  
Oh! She didn't seem as angry at him now, what a relief!

"are you okay...r...r..ringo..."

"Yes. Thank you for uh, saving me?"

"you...'re welcome."

Ecolo's chest hurt like hell, as he attempted to sit up. Pain like this was not  
something he'd experienced often, if at all. His vision was still a tiny bit blurry and he felt himself melting a little as well.  
That wasn't good! Ah, not to mention, he did feel a tad dizzy, too.

"Ah...Ringo?"

"What is it?"

"Hug..."

"Huh?!"

Suddenly, Ecolo was in her arms, holding tightly to her body.   
It hurt, but the small comfort he received from it brightened up his mood, at least a little.

"Here, here."

She held him too, gently patting his back. After what had happened, this was the least she could do.

"Hey, Ecolo. Could you tell me what the deal was with that weird, smokey figure?"

"nnmm... *grunt* "

"Please?"

"Fine..."

"Thank you."

"He's a very dangerous fella. Why'd ya have to go and anger him, Ringo?"

"Huh? I don't remember doing anything like that... It was the first time I saw the guy at all, actually."

"That's strange... Maybe in a dream?"

"A dream?"

"Yeah."

"I can't really remember anything weird like that..."

"Ah."

Ringo wasn't getting much out of him, but that guy sounded like bad news, already.

"You know him?"

"Kinda. We've... crossed paths. He and I don't really get along, though.  
He's no fun!"

"I see. You told me you weren't responsible for the disappearance of the building..."

"Oh! So that's what it was, that you were so angry about...earlier."

"Yes."

"Nope. Not me! Could be Smoke, though. We have similar powers, after all..."

"Hmmm..."

Even if Ecolo sometimes lied, this time around, she couldn't help but trust his words on it.  
That "Smoke" or whatever he was called, after what he had done to Ecolo, she could easily believe that he'd be the culprit behind the building too.

"Say Ecolo..."

There it was, that questioning, curious face of hers. Ringo's eyes were bright, calculating. While there wasn't much more she could think of asking about Smoke at the moment, she decided to keep going with the questions, taking this opportunity to understand the gooey fella better.

"I barely know anything about you."

"Me?"

"Yes. Where do you come from? Why do you keep causing trouble in so many worlds? What are you, even?"

"That's a bit rude, Ringo."

"Sorry."

"You already know the answer to one of these questions; I'm a dimensional traveller! I do have a 'home dimension', if that's what you wanna call it. But..."

"But...?"

"No one really stays there. Once we're born, we just keep travelling. That's how it goes!  
We move around a lot, never really returning..."

"You always find your way back here, somehow."

"Hehehe. Well, I must be special then!"

Pfft. That had gotten a slight chuckle out of Ringo. He looked rather enthusiastic, for someone who had just gotten pretty badly hurt.

"That guy, Smoke. He comes from the same place as me. Though, he's not really looking for a fun time.  
Just look what he's done to poor ol' me..."

Her worries peaked up again, as she observed his bandaged chest. It wasn't bleeding anymore, thankfully, but it still seemed to hurt pretty badly.

"About that, are you going to be okay?"

"Dunno. Maybe. I might live, I might die... it's a bit scary to think about."

"What?!"

"He's shattered part of my core, but I think I'll be okay. Possibly."

"Ecolo..."

Now, she was even MORE worried for the guy. Ringo gave him a slight pat on the head, to which he responded with a soft giggle. He was trying to make the situation a bit lighter, not wanting to feel worse about it.

"You know, what happened earlier...um..."

"Your false accusations~?"

"I wanted to apologize. It wasn't right of me to assume, even if you did bad things in the past."

"Apology~ Accepted! I'm still learning, Ringo."

"Learning?"

"The reasons for my existence, why I feel like pursuing happiness... friendships. I don't quite fully understand everything, but I think I'm getting better."

"You... don't understand friendship?"

"I do understand! It's just..."

He paused for a moment and looked to the ceiling.

"There's not much point making friends, if people are just going to forget about you."

"I remember you, don't I?"

"One of a handful of people who do! For some reason... that I don't understand."

"I don't quite get it either but--"

"Hey, hey! Would you like to be my friend, Ringo?"

Somewhat jumping on his knees, hands forward in front of him.

Big drooly smile, flowery outlook. Who even asked this kind of question?!

"Under one condition: No more tricks or mean-spirited mischief, okay?"

"Yeah!"

Ecolo tackle hugged her, making her fall backwards onto the bed. Ow! That had hurt his chest again, but he still didn't care. Ah! He was so glad to make a friend. It was a good thing, right? Whatever, it made him awfully happy! And that felt great!

Ringo smiled gently in return, patting his head some more. If this was all it took for him not to cause trouble, she'd gladly take it.

"Ah, Ringo... I can't get up..."

"..."

He was still hurt, after all. Ringo slowly rose back to a sitting position, taking Ecolo up with her.

"You should rest some more..."

"Aww... but that's boring!"

"Hmm. I got an idea!"

"Oh?"

Ringo got off the bed, leaving Ecolo alone for a few moments as she went out to get something. Her idea was a thing he could do while resting, that didn't require moving around at all. Returning in the room with the object hidden behind her back, she flashed a smile.

Ecolo tilted his head, bringing a hand to his face. What was it that she was hiding, behind herself? Then, Ringo brought the object in front of her-- it was the case of a movie.

"Here, I picked a movie I think you might like."

"Oh..."

The goo boy sounded terribly disappointed. Seeing his expression, Ringo caught on that he didn't seem too interested in a movie. Drat! Think... Think...

"W-Well. If you're not in the mood for a movie, uhm...how about... Oh! I know!"

She couldn't offer to play puyo with him at the moment, considering his current shape, but maybe they could play a board game or a card game!

From under a storage compartment under her bed, she brought out a simple card game.

"This one's fun! We both get a small pile of card and there's this totem in the center between us. We flips cards at the same time and if we have the same card, we both have to try and grab the totem. Whoever grabs the totem first gives all their flipped cards to the other player! To win, you need to get rid of all your cards..."

She hoped she wasn't boring him with her rambling about the rules of this card game...

"Ohh! Sounds interesting..."

Mischievious grin. She wasn't sure what to expect from that, but from the looks of it, he seemed to want to try playing the game. Placing a small bed table between them, Ringo put down the totem in the center of it.

"Here are your cards... Hey! You're not really supposed to look at them..."

"Huh? Oh."

"Put the pile facing down, on the side most comfortable for you to flip"

"Okay~"

Ringo herself placed hers down, a look of intensity in her eyes.

"Shall we begin?"

With a nod from Ecolo, both started flipping cards. Only five cards in and they already had matching symbols. Ringo had been faster at grabbing the totem, which meant Ecolo was the one receiving five additional cards to his pile.

"Gh..."

The game went on, with every opportunity to grab the totem being won by Ringo, which only helped Ecolo get more and more frustrated. As Ringo was about to win, Ecolo threw away his cards. He crossed his arms and looked away. It seemed like he didn't want to play any longer. Ringo then realized that he hadn't made any attemps to grab the totem, not even once.

"Why aren't you trying to take the totem?"

"...I...I!"

Ecolo's voice was a bit rough and louder than usual.

"What's wrong?"

"I can't see the cards very well, Ringo..."

His earlier roughness died out as quickly as it had been birthed, as he curled up on himself. Raising his voice like that kinda hurt...

"Hey, it's okay. If anything, I'm sorry. I didn't think this through..."

"..."

Putting a hand on his shoulder, she uttered:

"I still think that you should rest, though."

"Mmhmm..."

Putting the game and table away, Ringo watched as Ecolo wrapped himself into the blanket, face down on the mattress.

"When you feel better, I promise we'll have a Puyo match, okay?"

Ecolo emitted a muffled noise, which sounded somewhat like a squeak.

"Yay!"

As Ecolo attempted to rest some more, Ringo went back to her homework from earlier, to pass through some more of it before she headed to bed.  
Bed sounded really appealing, though. After such an eventful, stressful day...

...Ah. Maybe homework could wait after all. Nudging Ecolo to one side of the bed, Ringo laid down next to him, closing the lights.

 


	3. More problems arise, the ultimate prize.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A nice, peaceful day is quickly soured by Ringo's discovery.

A weight could be felt on top of her, something round... squishy... and strangely wet?!

''Ecolo?!''

Snore. Drool trailing off the side of his mouth as per usual, Ecolo was resting, thoughts deep within the world of dreams.   
Rolling left and right in his sleep, he had only come to a stop because of Ringo's presence.

''Ecolo!''

No response. Ringo attempted to push him off, only for Ecolo to hold on even tighter than before. Not wanting to resort to more brutal measures as Ecolo was still recovering from severe injuries, the girl let out a deep sigh, continuing her attempts to wake him up. Would yelling louder work? Her thoughts trailed off: ''If my parents hear me... Oh...! This isn't good!''

''HYAHAHAHAHAHA!''

A loud laughter. It wasn't uncommon for her to laugh like so and as such wouldn't be raising too many red flags.   
Ringo stared at Ecolo's sleeping face, which hadn't changed much despite the noise she had just been making.

''Oh, really now?!''

It hadn't been in vain, thankfully. A minute or so later, a soft response could be heard:

''Mm....N...noisy...''

''I'm sorry to wake you up like that, but you're preventing me from getting up...''

''Huh...?''

Ecolo rose up a little, holding himself up with one arm, and holding his chest with the other.   
Drowsy-eyed, he stared at Ringo, before losing balance and falling back on her once more.

''Ow!''

''Uhheh...''

The girl helped him sit up, making sure not to touch his chest.

''Sorry, Ringo.''

''It's fine, really. How are you feeling this morning? You don't look very well...''

''Kinda...dying.''

''HUH?!''

She didn't want to believe him right now. He must've been kidding, like he usually was, right?

''You're not going to die, are you??!''

The thought of it was admittedly scary, not to mention he was in her own house...

Ah! Oh no!

''Well...no. I hope not. Feels... not good. I don't know.''

''...Oh.''

Taking a good look at Ecolo, he clearly seemed worse than the day prior. It almost looked like he was melting, his shape seemingly a bit less consistent than usual. Ringo slid off the bed, about to step out of her room, when Ecolo interrupted her with a question:

''Where.. Where are you going...?''

''I'm getting us some breakfast and something to drink too. Anything particular that you want?''

''...Food.''

''Guess you're not very picky, huh.''

Was he drooling even more than usual, or was Ringo just imagining things? She chuckled in response and headed downstairs, making her way to the kitchen.  
Ringo took notice that it was pretty early in the morning, considering she was the first one up. Her laughing hadn't woken up anyone, either.

Taking a pan and placing it on the stovetop, Ringo let it heat up as she prepared an omelette mixture. Made with multiple eggs, green onion and a tiny bit of cheese, it was bound to be delicious and filling. Her plan with the omelette was to make a big one that they could split in half. Dropping the mixture in the pan, Ringo started pouring orange juice for the two of them into glasses while it cooked. Once ready, she placed it on a plate, which she held with one hand, while holding the other two glass and utensils with her other hand and arm.

Back upstairs, Ringo placed the things she was carrying on her desk to ease her load so that she could take out the bed table.

''Fooood....''

''Just a moment---hey!''

Ecolo wobbled closed to the edge of the bed, nearly falling off.   
Though, as Ringo was about to catch him, she realized he was floating, albeit only about a inch off the ground.

''You spooked me...''

''Floaty~~''

Seriously?! Ah well, it was time to eat anyways. Gently pushing Ecolo back on the bed, she prepared the table and put the food down on it. But before she could say anything, Ecolo dug in, hands grabbing onto the plate, which he brought to his mouth. In a matter of seconds, the entire omelette, plate included, disappeared. Ringo's mind blanked as she struggled to find a response to whatever had just happened. Completely baffled by the gigantic appetite of her friend, all she could do is stand and stare. Not to mention, he was still drooling in copious amounts.

''Uh...''

''This was...really delicious! Thank you...''

''Oh, uh sure. You're welcome.''

She omitted the fact it was for both of them, thinking it would probably be better this way.

''Are you feeling better, at least?''

''A bit.''

''I'm glad!''

The rest of the morning went by smoothly, as Ringo picked her homework back up while Ecolo rested some more. The hours went by quickly, as she worked away, checking on Ecolo once in a while and taking breaks. About three hours had passed when she realized she was getting rather hungry, not having taken the time to make herself breakfast after her friend had eaten the entire thing. Going back to the kitchen for a quick bite, something seemed terribly off.

No one was there. Though, Ringo realized that at this time, her parents were probably at work, right? The feeling didn't shake off, as she inspected the kitchen's state. The pan she had used for the omelette hadn't been moved off the stovetop and it seemed as if nothing had been touched in the kitchen, overall. Of course, Ringo couldn't remember every small detail, but it was strange. The TV wasn't on, there wasn't any new dirty dish in the sink. The remote hadn't moved from its previous spot, either. Maybe they had gone on a romantic breakfast date? Without telling her?

Placing those thoughts aside for a moment, Ringo grabbed a bowl of cereals. It wasn't much, but she decided to wait for lunch to eat anything bigger.   
After she was done eating, a thought brushed her mind. Couldn't she just call them?

Heading back to her room, Ringo picked up her phone and dialed her dad's number.

No answer. A tone followed by a message letting her know that the phone she was trying to reach was out of service.   
This... really wasn't a good sign.

Trying the same with her mother, Ringo got a similar result.

Overcome with worry, the girl ran out of the house and towards the location where her parents would most likely be.   
As Ringo approached her destination, her worries had been confirmed.

It wasn't just her parents that had seemingly disappeared.


End file.
